Royal Decree 933/2021 sets the documentary registration and reporting obligations for individuals and legal entities carrying out lodging activities in Spain.
If you manage a tourist accommodation —hotel, apartment, rural house, or any regulated lodging— this rule applies to you directly.
Royal Decree 933/2021: who has to comply
The decree was published in 2021. The obligation to submit electronically through SES.HOSPEDAJES came into force in December 2024.
It applies to every individual or legal entity providing lodging services. The practical list:
- Hotels, hostels, guesthouses.
- Tourist apartments and tourist-use dwellings (VUT).
- Rural houses, youth hostels, mountain refuges, campgrounds.
- Private vacation rentals on platforms (Airbnb, Booking, VRBO, etc.) when offered as tourist lodging.
- Seasonal rentals with lodging services.
Does it cover pure seasonal rental without lodging services? The current administrative reading is yes when there’s tourist turnover. The boundary is decided case by case. If in doubt, check with your advisor.
Spain RD 933/2021 vacation rental obligations in plain English
Since December 2024, every accommodation must:
- Collect the data of every traveller staying at the property.
- Submit a guest report to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior through the SES.HOSPEDAJES platform.
- Report the lodging reservation with the details of the stay (dates, number of guests, type of accommodation).
Electronically. The old paper reports are no longer accepted.
Royal Decree 933 Spain: what data must be collected
The rule requires, as a minimum:
- Full name (first name, first surname, and second surname for Spanish documents).
- Sex and date of birth.
- Nationality.
- Type and number of ID document (DNI, NIE, passport, or ID document from the country of origin).
- Support number (required for the Spanish DNI).
- Usual residential address.
- Contact phone and/or email.
- Relationship to an accompanying adult, for minors aged 14 to 17.
For the lodging reservation, the contract details are added. In some cases, payment data as well: type (card, bank transfer, cash), holder, last four digits if a card. Whether payment data is mandatory depends on the type of lodging and the length of the stay. For tourist apartments, the current administrative reading is that payment data is included.
Minors under 14 are exempt from individual registration, though they must be listed as companions. We go deeper into how the rule applies to children and teenagers in Minors in guest registration.
Spain guest data law 933/2021: deadline for submission
The rule asks for the communication at the moment of check-in or within the 24 hours following the start of the stay.
In practice:
- The guest report is sent to the Ministry within the first hours of the stay.
- The lodging reservation can be sent earlier (when the booking is confirmed) or together with the guest report.
- A cancellation is reported if the reservation had already been submitted and the guest doesn’t arrive.
Sending a report a week later is an untimely communication. Sanctionable.
How long do I keep the data?
Three years.
After that period, data must be deleted or anonymised. The retention is fixed by the rule. Not discretionary. Keeping it longer without an additional legal basis would breach GDPR.
Your software should purge automatically. Trusting yourself to do it by hand is the same as not doing it.
What is SES.HOSPEDAJES?
SES.HOSPEDAJES is the Spanish Ministry of the Interior’s platform, run by the Secretary of State for Security. It’s where you submit guest reports and lodging reservations.
The submission process is complex. Not practical to do by hand. Most accommodations need software that automates the generation and submission of the reports.
To access SES.HOSPEDAJES you need:
- A lessor code assigned by the system at registration.
- An establishment code for each property.
- Access credentials (SOAP username and password) for automatic submission.
We explain how to request each in How to obtain SES.HOSPEDAJES credentials step by step.
What is sent to the Ministry
Each submission includes two communications:
- Guest report: the personal data of each registered guest.
- Lodging reservation: check-in and check-out dates, number of guests, type of contract, accommodation details.
Both are sent together. Once processed, you receive a confirmation of acceptance or, if there are errors, the detail to fix them.
RD 933/2021 and payment card data: is it mandatory?
A question that comes up in every conversation with owners.
The rule includes payment-method data among the fields required for the lodging reservation. Yes. So you have to collect:
- Type of payment method (card, bank transfer, cash, etc.).
- Holder of the means.
- Identification of the means (last four digits in the case of a card).
You don’t collect every digit of the card. You don’t collect the CVV or the expiry date. Just enough to identify the means. Collecting more would be a GDPR minimisation issue.
What happens if I don’t comply?
Failing to comply can lead to administrative penalties.
The amount depends on severity and repetition. Falls under public-safety legislation (Organic Law 4/2015). Amounts range from €100 (minor) to €600,000 (very serious). We break it down in Penalties for non-compliance with RD 933/2021.
Beyond the fines, proper guest registration is the responsibility of every tourist accommodation operator.
Which autonomous communities have their own regulations?
Most autonomous communities use the Ministry’s SES.HOSPEDAJES. Two exceptions:
- Catalonia: reporting goes to the Mossos d’Esquadra through the Generalitat’s system.
- Basque Country: reporting goes to the Ertzaintza through the Basque Government’s system.
If your property is in either, you’ll need the regional system. We dig into the why and how in Guest registration in Catalonia and the Basque Country.
How RegistroViajero simplifies compliance
RegistroViajero automates the entire RD 933/2021 process:
- Digital check-in: each guest receives a unique link on their phone. They fill in their details, upload a photo of their document, and sign an accuracy declaration. 9 languages.
- Automatic validation: the system checks that all mandatory fields are complete and valid before allowing submission.
- Direct submission to SES.HOSPEDAJES: generates and sends the reports to the Ministry with one click. No manual intervention.
- Status tracking: queries the result of each submission and notifies you of errors or rejections.
- Reservation import: syncs your reservations from Booking.com, Airbnb, VRBO, Expedia, Tripadvisor, and Google Calendar. Learn how to sync the portals via iCal.
If you want to see the full end-to-end flow —from booking to Ministry submission— without setting up a tool yet, we walk through it in how to automate guest registration.
If you manage tourist accommodations in Spain and want to comply without complications, create a free account and try the service for 15 days with no commitment.
